Venice, Calif. - Digital production studio Speedshape helmed VFX for the annual Hess Holiday Toy commercial campaign, unveiling the brand-new Hess toy. A tradition embraced by children and
collectors alike, the series dates back to 1964 when company founder Leon Hess aspired to offer families an affordable, quality holiday toy. This year, Hess places something different under the tree--two toys, in fact: The 2009 Hess Race Car and Racer.

Continuing the holiday commercial tradition, Hess ushers in its unique, new
fleet, with a splendid two-spot campaign that brings the racecar duo to
larger-than-life scale via dazzling VFX by Speedshape. From the broad stokes
of the wintry environment development, to the subtleties of Christmas décor
and the dynamic animation of the racecars, Speedshape created CG animations,
matte paintings and 3D renderings, delivering a total of 23 full CG shots,
17 CG live action integration shots, as well as all compositing and
finishing.

"Mountain Race" places the Hess Race Car and Racer in head-to-head action
set in a twilight winter wonderland. Traversing amid CG snow-capped
mountains and icy tunnels, the racecars finish the race in a jubilant town
square filled with children gleefully awaiting their arrival. Next, the spot
cuts to a live-action environment where kids attired in Hess pit crew
jumpsuits demo the toy's intricate features: flashing lights, revving
sounds, and the touch release compartment storing the smaller race car with
a pull-back motor. The spot concludes with a brilliant combination of CG and
live action miniatures: The toy racecars parked outside a Christmas adorned
Hess Express station.

The second spot, "Pit Crew," takes the season's merriment 'round a festive
Hess-endorsed racetrack. As the racecars lap, a children's pit crew carols a
muscle car doo-wop before giving their life-size Hess Race Car a tune-up.
The spot again cuts to a live-action environment to demo the toy, before
concluding with the race's finish: Santa waving the checkered flag.

"We created the 3D renders of the racecars with a combination of HDRI
environments for distant environmental reflection and lighting, and built
full 3D environments for closer proximity reflections -- not forgetting the
great key and fill lighting from the team," comments VFX supervisor Connor
Meechan. "This combination coupled with our compositing pipeline made it
possible to bring to life our client's vision and then exceed it."

Live elements were shot outside Toronto, with Speedshape working closely
on-set with Sparks Productions to ensure every aspect of the live action
shoot would work within its creative pipeline. Speedshape captured HDRI
environments and images for digital props and reflections, and shot footage
of various groups of talent for crowd simulation sequences. Additionally,
Meechan and CG Supervisor John Ikera traveled to Leavenworth, Washington, for a shoot
that would be used to re-create the Christmas village via image modeling the
entire town.

"We did a lot of front-end preparation and planning before we arrived on
location, allowing the integration of CG with the live action to go quite
well," remarks Meechan. "Plus, working with Dale Fay [Sparks] was very
helpful, he has a lot of experience directing visual effects pieces."

Speedshape overcame significant challenges with set extension and zone and
clone crowd compositing on particular shots. The biggest challenge,
according to Meechan, was creating the myriad of environments unique to each
shot: "There were assets that we repurposed from shot to shot," says
Meechan. "However, each shot was unique enough to keep environment
development interesting for us. Given all the challenges and our parameters,
I am extremely proud of what our team achieved."

In post, Speedshape utilized projected matte painting techniques coupled
with dynamic vehicle animation, lighting, and texturing, all topped off with
snow FX generated in Houdini to bring the vision to life.

Speedshape's pipeline utilized an array of software, including 3DS max and
Maya (3D), V-ray (rendering), Houdini for FX, Nuke for compositing, Scratch
(final color and DI), and Final Cut for titling and conform. All these
platforms, talent and activities were put to use in Speedshape's
state-of-the-art facility in Venice, CA.

"The Hess Toy Truck tradition is one of those rare 'Rockwellian' gems that
has survived modern day hoopla, recalling a simpler time in terms of the
holiday season," adds Speedshape's managing director in Los Angeles, Steven
Spieczny. "The Hess commercial tradition elicited inspiration for the entire
Speedshape team to thrive on and we look forward to being a part of the 2011
campaign," concludes Spieczny.

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